Teresa Of All Trades (Book 1 Complete)

<Toxic Failinis Portal (F+) [Attuned: Radiation] : lv 55>

Materials: ???

A one way portal that connects monster Souls with generated bodies. Can be destroyed for resources.

"That's a good one, think we can take it?" Teresa asked her party as they watched a Portal from afar.

"Level 55? I don't know man, maybe. What's a Failinis? I can't see them from here." Preston asked.

"Me neither, what are they doing?" Jake added. It was just the three of them for now, Sarah was with Thomas at the moment fighting much weaker opponents. Teresa had used her <Monster Hunt> to find a decently strong Portal, though she had a suspicion they knew she was coming.

"They look like a bunch of dogs almost, but massive. Think wolves with multi-colored fur. More than 100 of them, less than 200." Teresa informed them. The Failinis had a beautiful coat of white, black, and blue fur that seemed extraordinarily groomed for a monster. If not for the fact their fangs continuously dripped a red liquid, she would feel bad for hunting them.

"So we thinking they have a Strength build? Agility maybe since they're kinda like dogs?" Preston asked.

"They got something leaking out of their mouth that's red, not sure what it is. Could be blood, could be poison." Teresa added.

"Then maybe Intelligence and Wisdom if it's Mana based poison. If it's blood, then maybe a high Vitality? Totally a wild guess, but it might fit a theme or something." Jake said.

"Dogs don't have great vision do they? They also haven't seen us yet, so Perception probably isn't their strong suit." Preston speculated.

"They do have an amazing sense of smell though, police dogs exist after all." Teresa countered.

"If they're anything like sled dogs they might have a solid Fortitude and Endurance, but that's a bit of a stretch." Jake added.

"Great, so we've narrowed it down to 'all of their stats are good,' I think we need to watch them for a while before we decide anything." Preston said.

"You think they have the Jack Of All Trades class?" Jake asked, getting a solid snort out of Teresa.

"They'd make a perfect pet for you Teresa, maybe we should try to take one with us."

"Nah, if I ever get a house they'd wind up dripping blood poison stuff all over the carpet. We've already got Mijo at home, we don't need something that looks like it eats babies."

"And Rheneas." Preston added.

"Who?

"Rheneas, you know. Simon's dog."

"Simon had a dog?"

"Yeah, remember he found her in the first week."

"I vaguely remember that, I think my brain is going to explode keeping track of too many names and people."

"Don't you have a perfect memory?"

"Not perfect enough."

The group continued to bullshit with each other while Teresa kept an eye on the Failinis, watching to see if she could get any information from their behavior. Unfortunately, just because something might have a high Agility didn't mean they were always running around super fast all the time. The Failinis moseyed around their Portal aimlessly, though one in particular seemed on edge. It patrolled near the perimeter of the pack, sniffing the ground and doing its best to stay alert.

"Just saw one try to catch a scent, I think they might have a point in Perception per level." Teresa said.

"Not two?" Jake asked.

"No, if it was two per level they would have over 100 Perception and definitely would have seen us by now."

"Got it, so 5 to 7 points per level we're not sure about yet."

A few more minutes passed as Teresa watched the monsters, trying to get any information out of them that she could. Unfortunately things weren't that easy. Even if they did have super Strength, it's not as though they would just prominently display it. With no reason to utilize any of their attributes, they were unlikely to really showcase their capabilities at all.

"We could always just try to find a roaming pack of them and take those out, there might be a few in the area." Preston offered.

"Not a bad idea if we want to play it really safe, but I think we'll be fine." Jake said. "Besides, Teresa soloed those rabbits and they were about the same level, three of us should be able to take them all on."

"Shoot, maybe you could use <Appraise> on the poison, see what it does?"

"I can try." Teresa responded as she stared directly at the red liquid dripping from a Failinis' mouth.

<Failinis Wine (F+) [Attuned: Radiation] : lv 55>

Type: Consumable

High quality wine naturally made by the mythical Failinis.

"No fucking way." Teresa said as she shared her screen, showing Jake and Preston just what the 'poison,' actually was.

"Are we sure we should kill them? We can leave them around, right? For scientific purposes." Preston asked hopefully.

"I don't think we want to be drinking that dude, it still says it's attuned to radiation." Jake told him.

"Teresa can <Purify> it, right Teresa?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sure it would taste all that great. Wine isn't that hard to make, is it? I think I'm with Jake on this one."

"But it's monster wine! When are we ever going to get the chance to try that again?"

"Tell you what, after we take them out if you can store the wine somehow then I'll <Purify> it for you."

"Awesome, I'm ready to go then."

"Alright, game plan. Jake still has the highest Fortitude but I'm not sure he would do well against the entire swarm. I do have an idea though." Teresa said. "I'll try to keep their attention on me and they'll chase me around while I pick them off. Jake will use <Taunt> from a distance to get a couple to branch off and go for him instead, while Preston can take out any stragglers and trim down the number of monsters going for Jake to keep it manageable."

"Are you sure you want to be the one getting chased? I'm faster." Preston asked.

"Yeah, but if something goes wrong you're much more vulnerable. I can always use <Sturdy Outer Shield> to tank for a bit if need be. On the other hand, when something inevitably does go wrong while I'm getting chased then you should send an <Air Slash> at the Portal itself, that would be great for getting their attention off me in case of emergency."

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"Sounds good to me."

"If my <Light Shield> is off cooldown I can use that to help yah out if need be. Otherwise, I'm plenty happy taking on just a few at a time." Jake said.

With that, the party got ready for combat. Teresa took her sword from her <Inventory> and ran towards the Portal, trying to imagine the fight in her head as she did so. Several Failinis looked up at her as she got into firing range, and she activated <Retaliate> while draining 1 HP per second to start out.

<Embers> shot out towards the pack of Failinis, and to Teresa's surprise the attack actually hit. Several Failinis were immediately engulfed by the attack, awarding Teresa multiple kill notifications. The pack began giving chase, and to Teresa's dismay they were fast as fuck.

A Failinis charged at her and immediately closed the distance in no time at all. It leapt into the air to pounce, but Jake's <Light Shield> blocked the attack before it could land. Seeing just how fast these guys were, Teresa activated <Dash> and sprinted away, trying to put some space between her and the monsters while firing <Embers> behind her.

The Failinis kept up with her just fine, easily eclipsing her top speed. It was another situation where the only reason she wasn't getting swarmed was due to the stream of fire behind her. Another managed to get around her attack and pounce at her, but it was swiftly cut down by Teresa's sword.

High Agility? Yes. High Fortitude? Definitely not. As a matter of fact, Teresa was willing to believe these monsters gained 4 Agility per level based on their speed. She deactivated <Retaliate> as she didn't need the damage boost, she just needed to survive while their numbers rapidly diminished.

While the monsters were incredibly fast, they were also predictable. They could certainly run twice Teresa's top speed, yet Teresa's attacks kept landing. The Failinis definitely possessed the ability to outmaneuver her and swarm her, but despite their speed they seemed… slow.

A red wave of energy engulfed a portion of the pack. Typically Jake's <Taunt> was pretty useful, being able to encourage a monster to attack him instead of any of his allies. It didn't always work perfectly, but that was fine. All they wanted was for him to take a few Failinis off Teresa's back so that Jake and Preston could get some kills in as well.

Which was why it was so surprising that every monster hit by his <Taunt> turned around to face Jake.

Shit.

A group of roughly 30 Failinis left the back of the pack and sprinted right at Jake, arriving at their destination almost instantly. He managed to swing his axe in time to cleave apart a Failinis like butter, but unfortunately that was not enough. Several more Failinis pounced on the man, climbing on top of him and completely swarming him.

There was a critical issue with Jake's build, and it was that he had no skills for dealing with crowds. Jake covered his head with his shield as that was the only part of him not protected by armor, though the Failinis continued to claw and bite at his limbs.

Teresa fired shotgun <Embers> into the crowd chasing her, abandoning all sense of resource conservation as she ran straight towards Jake, blasting away monsters that got too close. Several claws cut at her flesh, but she did her best to ignore it. Restoration Magic could take care of it and she had far better crowd control than Jake, even with his Fortitude this could be deadly.

Thankfully Teresa didn't really need to do anything, as they had a third person with them. A cut of white slammed into the Portal, alerting all of the Failinis at once. Preston had already fired a second <Air Slash> at the Portal and began to run away, preemptively predicting what the Failinis were going to do.

The monsters jumped off Jake and ignored Teresa as they gave chase to Preston who had attacked their Portal. Teresa used <Embers> to take out Failinis in the double digits as she ran towards Jake, <Healing Touch> ready to go.

"I'm alive, don't worry!" Jake yelled out towards Teresa, looking horrible. He had managed to protect his face just fine, but several attacks had cut through his low level armor. If Preston had hesitated then the situation would likely be very different, but from what Teresa knew about <Air Slash>'s travel speed she was willing to bet he fired the skill as soon as <Taunt> had picked up too many monsters.

Teresa placed her palms on Jake and used <Healing Touch>, repairing the man's wounds while Preston bought them valuable seconds. Teresa never looked away from Preston while she healed Jake, using her ability to sense Restoration Mana to 'see,' him instead.

Preston had multiple movement skills that made him faster than what his attributes would suggest. <Dash> was one that Teresa also had, but there was more. When a monster would get too close to him, he would jump over the crowd of Failinis and activate <Second Step>, creating a small platform under his foot that allowed him to redirect his landing.

A Failinis dove to clobber him, ready to pin him to the ground and likely eat his face off. The attack completely missed as Preston suddenly stopped with no warning, causing multiple Failinis to scramble as their target changed course. This was due to Preston's <Momentum Build>, a skill that Teresa had personally thought was too situational but Preston was able to make it work.

The skill instantaneously canceled Preston's movement, freezing him in place until he deactivated the skill. Once he was unfrozen, he would gain all of his momentum back plus some change depending on how long he used the skill. It also allowed him to choose the direction of his momentum, though it took a lot of practice to not immediately trip depending on the angle he chose. Teresa had once thought that it was pretty much the same as turning <Dash> off and on again to change directions, but this was much more sudden and gave an additional speed boost.

Another Failinis dove at him, but he resumed his sprint as he was suddenly running to his right, just a little bit faster than he had been before. Preston had a lot of skills that Teresa wouldn't mind seeing in action, but leaving him in this situation for too long was risky. It was not an exaggeration to say a single hit would kill him. He fired <Air Slash> again behind him, cutting through three of the monsters with the attack before it fizzled out.

"Gotta go!" Teresa yelled as she stopped healing Jake, deciding <Facilitated Restoration> could do the rest.

"Good luck!" He called out as Teresa's palm began glowing red. A streak of fire began shooting towards the Portal, continuously burning the mysterious structure. The Failinis once more had their attention redirected to a new target when something unexpected occurred. The Portal shattered as Teresa used a little too much force in her attempt to get the monsters' attention back on her.

The Failinis charged towards her, faster than before and now enraged. Their tails spun behind them propelling air back to run at an even higher speed. Teresa put her sword away as she prepared to blast them apart with shotgun <Embers>, alternating between hands.

She was pretty sure she had their weakness figured out now. They were fast, unbelievably so, but they had a slow reaction time. They probably didn't have any points invested in Intelligence or Wisdom, going all out on Strength, Agility, and possibly a tiny bit of Perception. Changing direction rapidly, responding to fast attacks, and dealing with hard to predict movement made their high speed not only useless but also a liability.

Just before the pack of remaining Failinis reached her, Teresa unleashed her first instance of shotgun <Embers> from her right hand. It melted right through the frontline of Failinis, and right as the fire died down her left hand shot the same spell as the right one charged up.

Blast after blast of fire incinerated the monsters, who were now charging at top speed towards a wall of flames. They couldn't stop fast enough, and those in the back were being attacked by Preston. A small group of five managed to steer away in time and tried to charge Teresa from another angle, but a <Light Shield> appeared in front of the lead Failinis. It ran headfirst into the barrier, snapping its neck from the impact and collapsing to the ground. The corpse caused the Failinis right behind it to trip, making them slide along the ground at airplane speed with a Fortitude not that different from a pre-System human.

Those who survived were too injured to continue attacking, and the rest of the fight became a slaughter. Not enough Failinis survived to put up much resistance, and within the next minute the battle was over.

"That wasn't so bad." Preston said as he jogged over to Teresa and Jake as she used her Restoration Magic.

"You know, that wasn't my best performance but it really wasn't too horrible." Jake agreed while Teresa fixed up his wounds. "Gives me a lot to think about though, I see a few places I can improve."

"We can look over the details later, there's something far more important that needs attending to." Preston announced while he lifted up something he was holding in his hands.

It was a shoe. He was holding up his shoe, and it was full of the Failinis Wine.

"Oh my god…" Teresa sighed as she realized his intention.

"You know what to do, hit it with a good old <Purify>."

"It's in a shoe."

"Yeah, I get we could have used the magic water bottle but I didn't think we wanted to mix radioactive wine with our water supply."

"You can't be serious."

"Hey, you said you would do it."

"Fine." Teresa relented. She finished up with Jake and placed a hand on the bottom of the shoe with <Purify> active.

"Perfect!"

"I'm sorry but that is actually foul man, are you sure you want to do that?" Jake asked.

"Absolutely."

"You know, I've had some pretty dark times in my life." Teresa admitted as she watched Preston. "Despite that, I don't think it's ever been 'drink wine out of a shoe,' levels of bad."

"I'm just living my best life. Bon Appetit." Preston said as he lifted the shoe to his mouth. Teresa and Jake both visibly cringed as he took a swig, watching with morbid curiosity.

"How is it?" Jake asked as Preston's face scrunched up.

"Fucking terrible."